UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — You’re sitting at your favorite Italian restaurant enjoying a moist-on-the inside, crispy-on-the-outside chicken Milanese topped with a bright, lemony heap of arugula. The safety of the food you are eating does not cross your mind. But what if the arugula had been prepared on the same unwashed surface as the chicken? In the United States such a scenario would be unlikely, but in many countries around the world, restaurant patrons regularly risk being subjected to such poor food-safety practices.
“The food-safety practices that Americans take for granted — such as washing hands with soap, refrigerating perishables, and not cutting raw meat and vegetables on the same surface without disinfection — may not be practiced widely in other places around the world,” said Catherine Cutter, professor of food science and Penn State Extension assistant director for food safety and quality programs.
According to Cutter, the World Health Organization estimates that every year, 600 million people — almost one in every 10 people in the world — get sick after eating contaminated food. As a result, 420,000 die annually from foodborne illness. The lack of general food-safety knowledge and poor food-handling practices result in the deaths of approximately 125,000 children under the age of 5 every year, the international group estimates. Cutter and her colleagues in the College of Agricultural Sciences want to change that.
Extending extension
Cutter wants to internationalize Penn State Extension, which has been vital to establishing food safety in the United States.
“Internationalization of our extension program could help to provide a safer global food supply, which not only helps to protect people in other countries, but also safeguards Americans, as some of these foods are imported to the United States,” she said.
Deanna Behring, assistant dean and director of international programs in the college, adds that offering extension programs abroad also will draw more people to Penn State’s programming and simply will give folks here the benefit of knowing that they played a part in creating healthy communities and economies for the people of this planet. “Our extension programs could make a broader impact in a way that, ultimately, will come back to us,” she said.